recovery

Two days ago, Jon Henke posed the question, "What policy should Republicans be advocating and pursuing to limit government and regain popular support?"

With Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress proposing new bailouts and a significant amount of additional government spending to create jobs and restore the economy, Republicans have a phenomenal chance to reinforce our earnest belief in limited government.  I propose a simple policy that will allow us to both "limit government and regain popular support": Republicans must fight Democratic efforts to build a nanny state to solve the economic woes. Instead, our policy should be offering solutions to revive the economy that are rooted in free market principles.

Indeed, Thomas Sowell points out that government intervention may actually be harmful to the economy:

Even in the case of the Great Depression of the 1930s, increasing numbers of economists and historians who have looked back at that era have concluded that, on net balance, government intervention prolonged the Great Depression.

I recently had a unique chance to discuss the economy with renowned economist and monetary policy expert Dr. Allan Meltzer (which you can read at length here).  Meltzer and other leading economists have observed that the big problem plaguing the economy is the housing crisis, and that the government's efforts to breathe life into the economy have neglected this issue.  Meltzer proposes a free market solution to the housing crisis that could be immensely effective as a step toward getting the economy back on track:

To address the housing problem, Congress and the administration should take actions that increase the current demand for housing. For a limited time, say up to the end of 2009, allow buyers to use the value of their down-payment (or some part of it) as a tax deduction. Or, reduce the tax rate for qualified buyers who purchase a house between now and January 2010. Or do both. Give the benefit to all home buyers, including those buying a second or third house.

The bottom line is that the battle of free markets versus government control is one Republicans can – and should – win.  Dr. Meltzer noted that he often says, "Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin."  Yes, the free market will inevitably fail on occasion – and Republicans, as champions of capitalism, must pursue a policy that ensures that the free market is given the chance to fix itself as it has many times before.  If Republicans can identify innovative free market solutions to the economic woes like the proposals outlined by Dr. Meltzer, we can help ensure limited government while making real progress toward economic recovery.

Let's change FEMA’s (and similar disaster response agencies’) regulations as follows:

For example: if a person lives in a hurricane prone area and their house is destroyed by a hurricane (or related disaster such as a tornado or flooding caused by a hurricane), they can receive help to restore their lives to some semblance of order. However, they may not receive any more hurricane-related bailouts for the next 10 years.

Because right now we are subsidizing people who think it is a good idea to build their house in areas which are prone to natural disasters on a regular basis and everyone who does not live in such areas is paying for them to do so.

By removing the incentive which allows them to spread their risk among everyone else, we will begin the process of forcing people make truer assessments of the amount of risk they are willing to take on than they are currently doing.

The positive results? 

1. People will move away from areas prone to certain natural disasters or
2. Have to buy proper insurance to ameliorate the risk they are voluntarily taking.
3. Also cost to everyone else will go down as the government stops forcing them to pay for someone else’s willful disregard of reality.
4. "Worst-disaster ever" will be used less frequently as fewer people are at risk to harm.

1. Areas like South Florida would see a drop in population or
2. Their inhabitants would see a rise in the cost of living commensurate with the true risk they are taking to indulge their preference to live in the area.
   

This entry is cross-posted at NextGenGOP.com.

Today, the question at the forefront of the minds of Republicans seems to be, "How can the Republican Party get back on the right track?" The path to a GOP resurgence after a devastating four years is not an easy one. Ordinary folks are disgusted with President Bush, and despite Democratic control of the Congress, most of the blame has been pinned on Republicans.

Worse, there is no clear Republican message. While the Democratic Party has unified around Barack Obama’s message of “hope” and “change,” there is simply no unified message present in the Republican Party. How will we be different than Democrats? What does the Republican Party stand for? Why should you elect us instead of them? Unfortunately, these questions have gone unanswered, and with the current negative perceptions of the Republican Party, Democrats are poised to win unprecedented control of the federal government.

As a result, the Republican Party is desperately in need of reform if it ever wants to regain its rightful place as the majority party in this country. We are not talking about a few simple policy shifts, but rather sweeping reforms that remake the entire image of the Republican Party. Specifically, there are three steps that we need to take if we want to recover from these difficult times: establishing a clear message, increasing the effectiveness of our use of new media, and establishing a RightRoots movement.

Establishing a Clear Message

Establishing our message is perhaps the most crucial step for a GOP resurgence. In 1994, our message of the “Contract with America” propelled us to incredible electoral victory. This concept is so powerful because it allows us to include many “sub-messages” (such as cutting taxes, reducing government, and protecting national security) within a single comprehensive message: the Contract. Going forward, we need a Contract version “2.0″ that guarantees to deliver and restore the values shared by the vast majority of Americans. Specifically, this Contract 2.0 should promise the following (in no particular order):

1. The Republican Party will not stand for corruption at any level. Elected officials who are even accused of corruption (read: Ted Stevens) will be publicly lambasted by the Party’s leadership and will be immediately asked to resign. Dirty politicians are not and will never be welcome in the Republican Party.
2. The Republican Party is the party of free markets. We will fight to make it easier and more affordable for ordinary folks like Joe the Plumber to start their own businesses and succeed. Additionally, we will ensure that federal regulation of our industries is minimized as much as possible.
3. Our judges and justices have no business legislating from the bench. Extremist judges who impose their views from the bench are a danger to society as we know it. The Republican Party will only support highly qualified judicial nominees who will not legislate from the bench.
4. The Republican Party promises to work to reduce the tax burden on all Americans, regardless of income. We will never stand for a tax increase for any American. Additionally, we promise to fight tooth and nail against any form of socialist income redistribution.
5. We promise to reduce the size and spending of the federal government. In addition, we will vote against any bill that includes unnecessary “pork-barrel” spending, and we will publicly distance ourselves from any elected official who attempts to procure such “pork-barrel” money.
6. This country faces the gravest threats it has ever seen. We will take any and all necessary action to defend this great country, and we will not relent until every single terrorist has been brought to justice. Finally, we will not, under any circumstances, meet without precondition with our enemies, such as Iran or Venezuela.

Increasing the Effectiveness of Our Use of New Media

I have been privileged to have the opportunity to speak about New Media at a number of conferences – most recently, I spoke on a panel at Americans for Prosperity’s 2008 Defending the American Dream Summit on “The State of the Conservative Movement Online.” I began my thoughts on this panel by making a very important observation: Barack Obama was the first candidate in U.S. history to win a Presidential nomination almost entirely through the use of new media.

I have been reading the book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (which I highly recommend as a read for anyone). The basic premise of the book is that Web 2.0 has created a new age, an “Age of Participation.” This Age of Participation is facilitated by “peer production,” “which describes what happens when masses of people … collaborate openly to drive innovation and growth.” Following this line of thinking, Barack Obama’s website fuels participation and collaboration, while John McCain’s primarily serves to provide information and educate.

For example, Obama’s social networks allows you to see a breakdown of all of your friends: how many calls they’ve made, how much money they’ve donated, and so forth. From there, you can send your friends a message encouraging them to donate more or make more calls. This level of person-to-person collaboration has never been seen before in politics.

If we want to win, we need to gain the upper hand online. To do this, we need to engage people online at the same level that Barack Obama does.

Establishing a RightRoots Movement

Jon Henke, John Hawkins, Patrick Ruffini, and many others have commented on the necessity of constructing a RightRoots Movement, along with how we can accomplish doing this. These brilliant folks have managed to cover many of the points I would normally discuss. However, there is one point that I would like to contribute to the discussion. Above, I talk about the differences between Obama and McCain’s website: namely, that Obama’s promotes peer production but McCain’s does not. The same is true of the Right vs. the Left: the Left successfully established a collaborative “LeftRoots” movement long ago, while to this day nothing of the sort exists for the Right.

Does this translate into electoral failures? You better believe it. In building a RightRoots Movement, the authors of Wikinomics put it best: “We must collaborate or perish.”

Conclusion

The current state of the Republican Party is a sad one. It has lost its identity, its message, and in turn, its electoral prominence. The GOP needs new ideas, new messages, and new leaders if it wishes to return to the “Grand Old” days. I believe that the core values of the Republican Party are much more in line with the core values of the average American than the values of the Democratic Party. And I think that the GOP can have its resurgence sooner rather than later. And because of this, I for one am a firm believer that our best days lie ahead, not behind.